SHANGHAI - Le Havre, the leading French market port, is seeking new business opportunities from the Chinese market in a bid to expand its cargo volume to and from China.

The port authority sent representatives last week to Shanghai and Dalian in Liaoning province to meet local clients and emphasize the port's numerous advantages and its strong relations being forged with them, said Laurent Castaing, chairman of the Management Board of the Port of Le Havre.

"China has become our major trade partner which has accounted for 34 per cent of the port's turnover," said Castaing.

Main products exchanged with China include wine & spirits, perfumes, furniture, cereals, paper, plastics and agricultural machinery from France and clothes, shoes, agri-food products and chemical products from China.

China has become its third biggest shipping market for wine and spirits trade with a growth of 112 per cent between 2008 and 2010, he said.

"The year 2011 has been marked by a strong symbol of the relations with China and the trade volume is expected to grow on last year's base," he said.

The trade volume with China comes mainly from the country's three ports with Shanghai ranking first, followed by Ningbo in Zhejiang province and Hong Kong. The trade percentage with China is expected to reach 40 of its global turnover by 2015, said Herve Cornede, commercial & marketing director of the port's Management Board.

Castaing said the port initiated its reform since May 2011, which means totally private terminals, an up to 20 per cent increase of productivity and landlord port management.

The scheme plans for 2015 an increase to 2.7 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) to the hinterland and one million TEUs transshipment to Western Europe, the chairman said.

He said the growth in containerised traffic requires developing consolidated transport for containers pre- and post-carriage to the port of Le Havre. To complete the scheme, a nultimodal terminal has been planned to open in the heart of the port zone in 2014.

The terminal, costing 140 million euros in investment, will optimize river and rail mass transport services to the European network, said Castaing.

Meanwhile, its Roromax project, a joint section of quality progress with the objective of reaching 500,000 vehicles per year in 2015, is ready to receive "made in China" vehicles, he said.